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My first Nano-Reef contest tank! 🙂
Mar 2020 FTS
Feb 2020 FTS
August 2019 FTS
The pico didn't like me going on vacation 😅
July FTS
June FTS
May FTS
April FTS
Background
I've been keeping saltwater aquariums for the past 12ish years straight, so I've been having some serious fish tank withdrawals in the past 6 months without one (since I moved from CA to Hawai'i). Luckily I get to play with tanks at my work, but I really miss having a tank of my own. So I'm glad I could use this contest as an excuse to get my feet wet again! If you are familiar with some of my old tanks, you may already know I like to keep things as simple as possible, so I'm loving the restrictions of this contest.
Reef Tank in Hawaii?
I think my main challenge will involve stocking this tank. I live in Hawai'i, where it is illegal to keep hard corals in your aquarium. They take this very seriously, so I will not push that. What you can have are zoas, palys, soft corals, and some anemones (I think just H. malu). Not too bad, right? Well...you can't import any coral, so you're stuck with whatever grows here in Hawai'i. Zoas and palys selection is ok, soft coral is almost non-existent (just a brown Sinularia and a mat-forming softie similar to Blue Snowflake). Also, live rock/sand is illegal to sell/collect. So you must start with dry rock and sand. The good news is you can collect your own CUC and zoas/palys, as long as you don't take any live rock with them. I can collect my own fish as long as I follow the regulations. Good news, limu (Hawaiian for algae/seaweed) is legal to have/collect. So you guys know exactly where this is going 🤓
Stocking
* = endemic to Hawai'i
Fish
- Juvi Zebra Blenny (Istiblennius zebra)* Carpet surfed
- 2x Petite Gobies (Priolepis farcimen)* Carpet surfed
Macroalgae (limu)
- Pink Galaxaura (Galaxaura rugosa)
- Hairy Galaxaura (Galaxaura divaricata)
- Halimeda discoidea
- Turbinaria ornata
- Laurencia
- Dictyota
- A few more, I'll update this list later
Coral
- Anthelia edmondsoni*
- 1 Zoanthid morph
Inverts
- Mini brittle star
- White Claw Hermit (Calcinus seurati)
Equipment
Tank: Marineland standard glass 2.5g
Lighting: Natural sunlight (indirect) Asta 20
Filtration: Plenn-Plax Cascade HOB (their smallest one)

8/2/19
7/16/19
6/12/19
5/8/19
Hello NR! I’m excited to be joining the old school pico reef contest.
My plan for the tank is a ‘boneless’ setup… so all (or mostly) soft corals and nems. On top of this, the tank will be set up at my high school, Whitney Young, as a part of my club, Eco Club, which focuses on animal stewardship and environmental education. I will be the one managing all maintenance on the tank. My main goal for this project is to teach other students about coral reefs/marine habitats and for them to be able to become active in their protection and conservation. Since I’ll keep it at school I won’t be there to take care of it every day, so I’ll try to make it as bulletproof as possible (why it'll be boneless).
Let’s get down to the setup list:
The tank I’m using is a UNS 3N, very seamless, clean look.
Aquaclear 50 power filter. I’ll get into the filtration below.
Kessil A160, supplied by the club.
Kessil Spectral Controller, supplied by the club.
Aqueon 50W heater.
ACKE horticulture/refugium light.
JBJ ATO, cheap and ugly... I'd like a Smart ATO micro in the future because the JBJ is reeaally bulky.
Now we’re getting into filtration:
The filtration is going to be mostly biological. I converted the AC50 into a refugium by putting the light on the back and taping the sides to keep the light in. I’ll be putting chaeto in there along with 3 marine pure spheres- I considered caulerpa but the possibility of it going sexual and nuking the tank outweighs the pros. The other biological filtration will be from the sandbed and live rock.
I have a small bag in with a tbsp of carbon and a few pinches of GFO as well.
I have a strip of filter floss next to the intake in the filter for mechanical filtration.
Jumping into the aquascape plan:
I wanted to give this its own category since I planned so much about it. Just to give you an idea of how long I spent on it, it took me over 10 minutes to wash the epoxy and super glue off my hands after I finished it.
I designed an arch to be able to let a few corals grow up the sides of it while leaving enough room on the sandbed for other corals. I’ll try to find some tall corals like leathers, kenya tree, xenia, or photosynthetic goniopora to put on the back of the arch to give it more depth.
I’ll get cloves, GSP, zoas, mushrooms, and some other softies to grow over everything and make colorful. It's mostly zoas though.
Then on the sandbed I’ll keep RFAs to put some more colors in there.
Moving onto the stocking list:
So the only real things that I will stock in the tank will be a clean up crew and a few crabs.
Right now I have a purple porcelain crab, a halloween hermit, two trochus snails, and a few hitchhiker stomatellas.
That about does it, I’ll try to pump out as many updates as I can for you all.

Ok. Here we go. I have not had a Pico reef in 10+ years but I saw this contest and I had to build one again. I dug up my 2.5g tank from my garage. It has been dry forever. I also went into my box of equipment and as you can see from the picture, my filter is over 15 years old and was put away dirty. Really bad of me. I have not turned it on and I hope it still works. As for the light, I found my old light but I don't think it will be good enough so I am going to take apart the LED light in the picture and build a small LED fixture for the tank. I found my old air pump but I don't think I will use it. I will be going bare bottom and as for corals I will frag from my main system. It being a 150 gallon mixed reef.
My wife looked at me saw what I had bought out and shrugged and shook her head. I guess I am off to a good start.
Good luck everyone.